Sport horse industry worth $1b

Student investigates scope of industry

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The sport horse industry in New Zealand is worth more than $1 billion annually, according to a University of Waikato student's study.

Masters of Business Administration student Alex Matheson has performed what is one of the first investigations into the size and scope of the sport horse industry in New Zealand.

A graduate of the agricultural and horse-industry based Marcus Oldham College in Australia, Alex decided to undertake the study after finding there was no information available on the collective economic impact of the industry.

Sport horses are defined as all horses that are not being used for racing or breeding horses for the purpose of racing.

"I wanted to get a better understanding of the sport horse industry in New Zealand. The actual size of this sector of the industry is not widely known and before this has not been studied collectively."

He carried out an online survey of more than 150 participants, asking questions about everything from the grazing costs for their horses, transportation, vet bills and more. This data was then compared to the Agribase Biosecurity database.

Of the estimated 80,000 sport horses in New Zealand, the average total annual spend per horse was $12,500, meaning the sport horse industry is worth more than $1 billion or 0.5 per cent of New Zealand's annual GDP.